Well, I am a boy again
by Isabel-lupin-black
Summary: After a project goes wrong, Ford is a young boy again. Now, he will have to fix his machine to turn back to normal with the help of Dipper. This shouldn't be a problem, but Mabel knows nothing about this incident and, as we know, she is a little "boy crazy". Also, Stan is a little more affected by the whole situation than everyone thought.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Gravity Falls or any character of this great show. Enjoy!~

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Wel** **l, this is a problem.**

Stanford Pines knew that he had to be careful when he was working on a project, if meeting Bill Cipher wasn't a good example about how dangerous an investigation or project could be, he didn't know what was.

But maybe when he tried to initiate his new machine, he should have been behind it, not in front of it where the laser could shot him. Now he knew two important things:

1-Mabel was right when she said that he should sleep more or his brain wouldn't work properly and he could do a silly thing.

2- Now he was a 12 or 13 year old boy.

" _Calm down"_ Stanford thought, trying too hard to not lose his composure at that moment. _"I just need to turn on the machine again and put it on reverse, so I can be a grown up again…"_ But when he was about to do that, he gasped.

He hadn't programed the machine so it could make living beings grow older, he wanted to try to make an old goat younger and, if it worked, then he would make possible for it to go back to normal.

The first step took him weeks, and that meant…

" _Oh no."_

"Grunkle Ford?" Dipper entered the lab, looking for his great uncle. "Dinner is ready, Grunkle Stan made spaghetti, Mabel having a sleepover in Grenda's house, where are…?"

Dipper stopped talking when he spotted a young boy in his grunkle's big coat, who was shrinking a red sweater with a flashlight.

"Who are you?" Dipper asked, surprising the boy, who yelled and turned around.

"Dipper." The boy seemed nervous." I… I need your help."

"Where is my great uncle?" Dipper asked, not trusting the kid at all. "Who are you?"

"It's me Dipper! It's Stanford!" the boy exclaimed, when Ford saw that Dipper didn't believe him one bit, he extended his arm so his great nephew could see his hand. "Look, I have six fingers. It's me Dipper."

Now Dipper was shocked. "Grunkle Ford?" The boy looked at his uncle with wide eyes. "How on earth did this happen?"

"I was working on a machine that could change the biological age of living beings. However, I only programed the machine to make individuals younger, not older and… this happened."

Dipper sighed, rubbing his eyes, not believing what he was seeing. "Well, what are you going to do now?"

"I can program the machine to get back to normal, but that will take me days. Now I'm trying to shrink my clothes so I can fit in them but…" Ford sighed when he saw how his sweater had now one large arm and the rest of his clothes were as tiny as a mice. "I believe this flashlight was damaged in Weirdmageddon."

"I can borrow you some of my clothes." Dipper offered, rubbing the side of his neck awkwardly. "They are not the best, but they can help for now."

"Let me get this straight". Stan did not believe what he was seeing, he pinched himself in the arm to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "In one of your nerd projects, you ended up being a weird 13 year old boy again?"

"Pretty much." Ford answered, now wearing a black t-shirt and jeans from Dipper. "I will need a few days to go back to normal. I already have the blueprints, now I only have to make sure that the changes I need to do in the machine will be successful."

Stan sighed and looked at his twin for a moment before going out of the room. "Well, it's been a long day, let's sleep for now. Tomorrow we will have to tell Mabel about all this."

Ford looked at the direction his twin had gone, with confusion written in his face. "That's weird. Stanley never misses dinner."

"Well, I guess seeing your twin as a young boy can make you want to skip dinner." Dipper said, a little worried about his grunkle.

" _I mean, seeing his twin like this, after all they have been through… this must be really hard for grunkle Stan_." Dipper thought with sadness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for your comments. I'm really glad that you are enjoying this story.**

 **This chapter is a little longer, but I hope you like it~**

 **Again, I do not own Gravity Falls or any of its characters.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Well, this is weird.**

Stanford Pines woke up in his room and proceeded to get out of bed in order to start the day. However, the moment he stood up, it took him a moment to remember why he wasn't as tall as before.

" _Oh, right."_ He thought with annoyance. " _I'm a young boy."_ Stanford sighed and got out of the room.

"Good morning." Dipper was already in the kitchen with Stan, who was making stancakes. "Will you start making the changes in the machine after breakfast?" his great nephew asked.

"Well, of course." Stanford took a sit beside his nephew. "I need to go back to normal as soon as possible, it' not like I enjoy being a kid again."

"Especially because you were always a nerd kid." Stan said, serving breakfast in front the two boys and taking a seat. "However, being a kid again might be fun, haven't you think of that?"

"Not really." Ford drank some juice after he answered his twin's question. "I have nothing to do in a boy's body."

Besides, Ford wouldn't admit it, but being stuck in a kid's body didn't bring him good memories about his childhood. He remembered how much other kids would be making fun of him because of his six fingered hands and his interest in "nerd stuff" as they would call it.

"Hey, don't you need help with the machine?" Dipper asked looking at his grunkle with a smile. "I really don't have anything else to do, and maybe if I help you, you can be back to normal sooner."

"That's sounds good." Stanford smiled at the boy.

"Well, just be careful." Stan was watching both of them with seriousness in his eyes. "I do not want to take care of a baby Dipper, that would be horrible."

"So, this is the machine."

* * *

Dipper stared at the object in front of him. It reminded him of the memory gun created by McGucket, however, this wasn't a gun. This machine had a big base that allowed it to be placed in a surface, and it was a lot bigger, just a little shorter than Dipper.

"The design is similar to the memory gun, this way, its manipulation would be much easier. Instead of typing the thing a person wants to forget, you type the amount of years or months you want to reduce or increase in the biological age of a living being." Ford explained this while searching for the blueprints of the machine.

"It's amazing, but why did you want to build this?" Dipper asked, staring at the machine with curious eyes, Ford stopped looking for the blueprints for a moment and began his explanation

"Well… a few weeks ago we ate some hamburgers, I felt mine tasted like… nothing, really, it had no flavor. And I began thinking about the factors that need to be considered in meat to taste good, and I began to think about the biological age of the animals. If we could control their age before its consumption, the meat would always have great quality" at the disgusted look in Dipper's face, Stanford continued talking. "I didn't make this machine to use it for that, don't give me that look. After that thought I just built this machine out of curiosity, nothing more, I won't experiment on an animal and then cook it, I am not cruel. However, I plan to use this machine in order to research how much we can be capable to control the age of different living beings, it can be an improvement for health, or even the environment."

"Hey, that actually sounds really cool." Dipper said with a bright smile. "Although, for now we need to make you a grown up again, don't you think?"

"Yes, and we cannot start without my blueprints, not to mention my glasses are now a bit big for my face and that makes things a little more difficult… Ugh! I forgot I let you here."

"What?" Dipper went to where his uncle was, only to find a goat eating the blueprints. "What is this goat doing here?"

"I was going to test the machine with it, I completely forgot I left it here." Stanford answered a little annoyed with the situation. "Come here…"

Ford tried to call the goat, however, it ran past him and got out of the lab.

Ford sighed. "I will look for it, wait here." He said to his great nephew before chasing the animal.

* * *

Mabel Pines was riding her bicycle with a smile on her face. The sleepover had been great! They watched a ton of good movies and read a lot of romance novels. Now she was going back home, hoping that her grunkles and her brother were willing to listen all the things she got to do in Grenda's house.

"Come here!" Mabel was about to arrive to the Mystery Shack when she heard someone yell.

" _Who is that?"_ she thought with curiosity. The voice belong to a young boy, but she had never met any other boy from about her age in the mystery shack. However, her confusion became happiness when she considered a new possibility. " _Maybe Dipper made a new friend like I did with Grenda and Candy!"_

Mabel got out of her bike and went to meet the stranger. " _If he's Dipper friend, he can also be mine's!"_ she thought.

"Got it!" she saw how the boy was now holding an unfolded… blueprint? Well, if he was Dipper's friend, he was totally a nerd too, so that wasn't weird.

The boy returned to the mystery shack, where she could see Dipper waiting for the stranger kid.

"What took so long?" her brother asked.

"Well, the goat was fast, and I am a 13 year old boy with no physical training whatsoever, Dipper." The kid explained. "But now we have the blueprints, so we can start to work."

"Hi!" Mabel ran to the two boys and greeted them. "I'm Mabel Pines, Dipper's sister" she said with excitement in her voice, watching the boy. She felt nervous for a moment. The boy had nice curly hair and cute brown eyes, not to mention he was probably smart if he was hanging out with Dipper; also he was… kind of cute.

"Oh, Mabel. You are finally here" Dipper began to talk. "Listen we have something important to tell you."

"I can see what it's about broseph." Mabel laughed. "You have a new friend!" she said happily, looking at the boy with the blueprints that didn't allowed her to see his hands.

"That's… not it Mabel." Dipper tried to explain something, but Mabel didn't let him.

"Come on, stop hiding it Dipper, you have a new friend! So, what's your name?" she asked turning her attention to the other boy.

"Mabel… you should listen to your brother." The kid said nervously.

" _He's shy. He's so cute!"_ Mabel thought watching the boy with new eyes.

"Well, don't worry, I'll go to my room with Waddles, you two keep having fun." She said a little nervous. "See you later!"

The girl entered the shack and got out of sight.

"What on earth was that?" Ford asked, a little confused.

"I… have no idea." Dipper answered.

* * *

Dipper entered the attic, and saw his sister playing with Waddles, although she seemed a little distracted.

"Mabel, I need to tell you something." Dipper began to say, but was interrupted.

"Dipper, your friend is so cute!" she exclaimed, watching her brother with wide eyes. "What's his name?"

"Mabel my friend is… wait." Dipper blinked a couple times to make sure he listened correctly "You think the boy that you saw downstairs is cute?"

"Well, yes." She answered with shyness in her voice. "He seems like a good and sweet guy."

Dipper needed to sit on his bed for a moment when he realized what was happening. _"My sister is having a crush on…"_ he cringed at the thought.

"Mabel, that doesn't really matter." Dipper said, earning a confused look from her sister.

"What, why not?" she asked, with a little sadness in her voice. "Don't you think he will like me or something?" she asked with a nervous laughter.

"It's not that." Dipper said quickly. " _How do I handle this?"_

"Well, then what's the problem?" she asked confused. "Come on, just tell me his name."

* * *

"So, this machine can change your age, huh?" Stan was in the lab with his twin brother. "Fascinating."

"It's not really fascinating when it affects you." Ford said, studying the blueprints. "Where is Dipper? He should be here by now."

In that moment, Dipper entered the lab with a weird smile on his face.

"Hello, I'm here" he said, his voice a little higher than normal.

"Is something wrong, kid?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow with confusion written on his face.

"Nothing important, nothing important." Dipper answered with a fake laugh. "Just… areyoureadytogoutwithmysistertomorrowgrunkleFord?"

Dipper said that question way to fast, however, the twins in the room could hear every word.

" _What!?"_ Stan and Ford exclaimed this at the same time, both of them equally confused.

"What are you talking about Dipper?" Ford asked, trying to make sense what his nephew just asked.

"Well..." Dipper rubbed the side of his neck awkwardly. "Let's just say that my sister has a _little_ crush on you and wants to go on a date with you, so I told her your name is Johnathan, "Johnny" for short." Dipper turned around and began walking to the exit of the lab. "Now, if you need me, I'll be upstairs…"

"You're not going anywhere, kid." Stan took Dipper by the collar of his shirt. "What the heck do you mean?"

"Can you just… explain what happened Dipper?" Ford said, not believing what he was hearing.

Dipper sighed. "Well, after Mabel saw you, I went to our room to explain her what had happened to you but… before I could do that she said that she finds you cute…." Dipper shivered at the memory. "And she asked me your name. The way she looked at me… I couldn't break her heart, so I told her your name was Johnathan and that I would ask you to have dinner with her tomorrow night."

Stanford facepalmed. _"Great"_ he thought sarcastically.

"I'll handle this." Stan said firmly. "This is way too weird and problematic."

After saying that, he got out of the lab to talk to Mabel, he returned a couple minutes later.

"Well, how did it go?" Ford asked nervously.

"Well, I made her know that you were excited about tomorrow night." Stan said with a fake smile.

" _What!?_ Are you serious!? I don't know if you remember Stanley, but she is our _great niece_." Stanford couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Sixer, you should have seen her face, she was really nervous about what your answer would be, I couldn't break her heart." Stan said with a tired sigh. Dipper went to his uncle side, looking at him like saying "I know that feel, man"

"Well," Stanford went to the exit. "If neither of you can fix this, I will have to do it."

Ford found Mabel a couple of minutes later on the kitchen, his hands were hidden on Dipper's jeans pockets.

"Hi Johnny!" Mabel gave him the brightest smile he had ever seen.

Ford sighed " _This is going to be hard."_ He thought. "Look Mabel, I need to tell you something."

"Did something happen?" she asked a little nervous and with a shy smile, her eyes watching him with affection.

Ford faked a smile, before saying: "I can't wait for our date tomorrow night!"

Mabel smiled at him "I know the feeling! The date will be so fun!" After saying this, she hugged him. He returned the hug, using only five of his fingers while doing so. All of this happened while he thought one thing.

" _This is bad."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you so much for your comments! I love reading your opinions towards the story. If you want me to reply to your comments, just let me know and I will do it before the beginning of the next chapters.**

 **I feel like I need to make a clarification towards the story: Mabel has a little crush on young Ford, however, this not means they will be officially together or anything like that. This is an important factor in the story, I felt like I needed to talk about it.**

 **Now, let's begin!~**

 **I do not own Gravity Falls or any of its characters. Enjoy!~**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Well, this is nice.**

"Well, mister "I will fix this", what will you do now?"

The family already had dinner and Dipper said goodbye to his new "friend". When Mabel went to the attic, Stan and Dipper quickly let Ford inside the shack and locked him in his room. Now, Stan watched curiously at his now young twin, who was walking in circles around his room, thinking.

"Well, I already accepted going out with her." He said, crossing his arms. "I guess I will go to the date and invent an excuse to not see her again."

"That sounds a little cruel." Dipper had arrived to the room. "But is the best thing you can do."

"I think that too." Ford said with a sigh. "Tomorrow I will wake up early so she doesn't see me in the morning and I will spent the morning working on the machine. I will pick her up at, I don't know, 6 pm to have dinner with her."

"Sounds like a good plan." Stan said, although his voice was a little tense "Just make sure you don't have to go out with her again, this is way too weird."

"I know that." Ford said, a little angry. "Don't worry, everything is going to be just fine."

"Just make sure not to sound too cruel, please" Dipper said, a little worried about the situation. "Mabel is super excited about the date, and I don't want her to be too depressed after tomorrow night."

"I will be as kind as I can be with this." Ford said, with a reassuring smile. "Well, it's getting late."

Dipper and Stan went out of the room and Ford climbed to his bed to sleep.

"Tomorrow will be a long day." He said to himself.

" _A date."_ Ford cringed at the thought. _"I really never had a date when I was young, all girls thought I was way too weird for them."_ Ford looked at one of his hands. _"Maybe they were right."_

" _Wow, six fingered hand shake, it's a full finger friendlier than normal."_

Ford laughed at the memory of what his niece had said to him. She had been the only one who complimented him when she looked at his hands.

Maybe… this was his chance to feel like a normal boy for once in his life.

" _Don't think too much about that_." Ford reprimanded himself. _"You will only take her out to dinner tomorrow and that's it. This is too weird."_

However, a part of him was a little excited about tomorrow night, even when he tried to deny it.

And he wasn't the only one who had too much in his mind.

" _Being a kid again, huh?"_ Stan closed his eyes at the thought. _"Interesting."_

* * *

"Good morning Dipper!"

Dipper woke up at the sound of his sister's excited voice. She was jumping on her bed while looking at two sweaters in her hands.

"Which one do you like the most? She asked, staying still for a moment. "My red sweater with a blue heart, or my blue sweater with a red heart?" she asked.

"I… think the blue sweater suits you better." Dipper answered, getting out of bed. "Why are you asking?"

"I need to pick the best sweater for today's date, of course!" she told him with a smile on her face. Dipper sighed without her noticing. "Well, I'm going to have breakfast. Are you coming, bro-bro?"

Dipper nodded and the two kids went to the kitchen to find their grunkle Stan cooking eggs with bacon.

"Good morning, grunkle Stan!" Mabel smiled at her great uncle, who smiled at her niece. However, a moment later, Mabel looked around in confusion. "Where is grunkle Ford? I haven't seen him in a while"

Dipper froze in his seat, while Stan laughed nervously.

"Well, you know how nerd my brother is, pumpkin." He said, trying to sound casual "He is probably working on a big project or something"

"Well… in that case I want to make him a cake, he works really hard, he deserves it…" Mabel was interrupted by his panicked brother.

"No!" he exclaimed, confusing Mabel and worrying Stan. "I mean… you can't do that, when you went to that sleepover the other night, he told me he didn't want to be interrupted."

"But…" Mabel looked at him with confusion. "You have been in the basement since then.

"Well, yeah." Dipper rubbed the side of his neck, he needed to think of something to say. "But, he needed my help building something. Now I finished helping him and I can't interrupt him anymore."

"Okay, I guess." Mabel raised an eyebrow while looking at her brother, who was finishing his breakfast a little too fast.

* * *

"Hello." Dipper was now entering his grunkle's lab while Mabel took a shower, in that way, she wouldn't know he was in there. "I brought you some clean clothes."

"Oh, thank you." Ford stopped working on the machine and went to Dipper.

"I also brought you these." Dipper showed his uncle a pair of gloves. "It may be a bit uncomfortable to use, but in that way my sister won't notice your six fingers."

"I didn't think of that." Ford said, taking the gloves. "Thanks, Dipper."

"How's the machine?" Dipper asked, looking at the tools that covered the floor.

"I think it will be ready in a couple of days." Ford answered happily. "Do you want to help me?"

"I would, but Mabel thinks you don't want anyone in here. She believes you have been down here all the time she hasn't see you." Dipper explained.

"I understand." Ford said with a frown on his face, and then sighed. "If everything goes right, we won't have this problem soon."

"I really hope so." Dipper said, while thinking of his happy sister. "Just…" Dipper sighed, earning a worried look from Ford. "Don't be mean to her tonight."

"I will be careful, I swear." Ford meant this. After all, he cared about Mabel, he really didn't want to hurt her.

* * *

" _Well, here we go."_

Ford was now outside the shack, wearing a red t-shirt, black jeans, and the black pair of gloves Dipper gave to him.

He really didn't want to do this, but, what choice did he have now?

Ford knocked on the door, and Mabel quickly opened it.

"Hi Johnny!" she said, with a bright smile. "Ready to go?"

"Sure." Ford gave her an awkward smile "Let's go to "Greasy's Diner", okay?"

"Sounds nice!" Mabel closed the shack's door and went "Johnny's" side. "Let's go!"

They didn't talk on their way to the diner, and as soon as they arrived, Mabel and "Johnny" took a seat in front of each other and, while the girl ordered a hamburger, Ford ordered some french fries.

"So, tell me about yourself, Johnny." Mabel said, smiling at the boy. "I never saw you around here before. Where are you from?"

" _Quickly, think an answer!"_ Ford though desperately, suddenly, he had an idea. "Well, I'm from New Jersey." He answered, not completely lying.

"Really? I'm from California! I came here to spend the summer with my great uncles." She began to say. "Are you visiting someone in here?"

"Well… I am visiting an old relative with my parents." Ford really didn't want to lie to his gran niece, but it was the best he could do now.

"That's sounds great." Mabel said, in that moment, their orders arrived, so Mabel bit her hamburger. She swallowed and began talking again. "What do you like to do?"

Ford ate a couple of fries before answering. "Well, I am a fan of "Dungeons-dungeons and more dungeons.

"Wow, you really are my brother's friend." Said the girl with a laugh. "He loves that game. I… don't really like it, but I saved him and one of my grunkles once playing that game."

"Really?" Ford acted like he didn't know that, and he earned a nervous laugh from his great niece.

"Well, yeah, it's kind of a weird story, so I will tell you about it other time." She said to him, before taking another bite of her food. "Say… why are you wearing gloves?" the girl asked, with confusion in her voice.

" _Oh no_ " the boy thought, before answering. "Well, it's just a weird habit of mine. I like wearing gloves, even if it's summer, that's all." He told the girl. Mabel blinked in confusion, but then she smiled at him with wide eyes.

"I have a weird habit too! I love wearing sweaters!" she exclaimed, pointing to the blue sweater she was wearing at the moment. "They are super comfy, it's like they are hugging you all the time" she said, with a cute smile on her face, making Ford laugh.

"That's sounds nice." He told her with honesty, while thinking how Mabel was able to see the good in what a lot of people would just see as awkward or bad.

Mabel smiled at him with her cheeks a little pink. "You really think so? No one has ever told me that before." She said to him before looking at the table with sadness. Ford frowned at this.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worried about his grandniece.

"Nothing, it's just… I wish the other kids at my school in California were as nice as you." She said at him with a sad smile. "They always make fun of me and my brother. They think we are weird."

Ford's hands turned into fists at hearing this. He was bullied when he was a young boy, and he did not like the fact that some idiots were making feel his great nephew and niece bad about themselves.

"Mabel." The seriousness in his voice made the girl look at him. "You shouldn't feel bad about being who you are with other people, if they don't like your personality, then that's too bad for them, not for you. They told you that you are weird? Maybe they are right." Mabel raised an eyebrow at this. "But who says that being weird is wrong? I think you are a great girl." Mabel smiled shyly when she heard this, making her grunkle smile too. "So, just ignore them and be who you are."

Mabel smiled at the boy for a moment before, literally, jump on her seat and hugging the boy that was in front of her.

"No one ever talked to me in that way." She said, sounding like she was about to cry in any moment while Ford didn't know what to do. "You are the best guy I have ever met."

The girl returned to her seat while Ford was realizing that, by talking like so kindly to his niece, he probably ruined his plan.

"Well, that's just what I think Mabel." Ford rubbed his neck, not knowing what to do now.

"So, you want to hang out other time?" the girl as with a smile on her face.

"Well…" before Ford would make an excuse for him to not see the girl again, Mabel continued talking.

"I really think you are a sweet guy."

Ford looked at her, not knowing what to think about that comment.

No one ever complimented him so many times in a day when he was young (except for Stanley, his mother, and the few friends he had at that age.)

For once, he forgot about his six fingers and felt like a normal boy.

"Yeah, I guess so."

* * *

"You what!?"

Dipper saw how happy his sister was when she returned from her date, so he instantly knew something went wrong.

"I couldn't tell her no!" Ford exclaimed, trying to ignore the angry look his nephew was giving him in that moment. "She looked at me with cute eyes, how was I supposed to tell her that?"

Dipper had a weird sense of déjà-vu. "Like this" the boy pointed to his lips, before saying: "No."

"It wasn't that simple." Ford sighed, and then looked at Dipper with a frown on his face. "By the way, why didn't you tell me or Stanley about you two being bullied in California?"

Dipper tensed. "How do you know about that?"

"Your sister told me." Ford answered. "It was after talking to her about that when she asked me to go out with her again." He explained.

Dipper sighed. "I… promise I will tell you and grunkle Stan all about it, but first, we need to resolve this issue."

"Fair enough." Ford sighed. "You know…" Dipper listened closely to his grunkle. "When I was a young boy, I never had a nice date with a girl before, and tonight was… nice."

Dipper looked with horror at his grunkle. "Oh no, don't tell me you are now in love…"

"NO!" Ford interrupted his nephew with an unpleasant feeling in his stomach just by thinking what Dipper was going to say. "No, no, no, no. I do not have a crush on her, don't get me wrong."

"Well, then what do you mean?" Dipper asked, confused but relieved.

Ford looked at the floor. "I'm just saying that I felt like a normal boy for once and not like a weirdo. Your sister can take something awkward from a person and turn it in something nice and… well, it was difficult to say no to her after that."

Dipper looked at his grunkle with wide eyes. Well, now he understood why they still had this problem, but…

Dipper sighed. "I can understand what you mean grunkle Ford, but… you know we need to end this as soon as possible."

Ford sighed. "I know, that won't change, I was just explaining myself."

The dramatic moment was interrupted when they heard the voice of a young boy that Dipper didn't recognize, but Ford did.

"Man, being a kid again is awesome!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello! Thank you so much for your support. Writing this story has been really fun:)**

 **Spider-Pig 1986: Thank you for your comment! I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Yeah, it's sad that Dipper and Mabel are treated that way in California u.u but they have people who loves them in Gravity Falls:) And our little Ford finally had someone who talked with him without making fun of him, he deserved it, I mean, he is a nice person. (And one of my favorite characters.)**

 **Now, enjoy this cute chapter~**

 **I do not own Gravity Falls or any of its characters. (Do I have to do that in every chapter?)**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Well, I hope this works.**

"You are an idiot, Stanley!"

"You are the idiot, Ford!"

"Keep it down." Dipper pleaded, nervously. "Mabel is taking a shower, but she might hear you… wait, grunkle Stan, is that my shirt?"

"Why did you use the machine?" Ford and Stan ignored their nephew while looking at each other with anger in their eyes.

For some reason, Stan thought that it was a good idea to use the machine for him to be a 13 year old again. Now, both of the older pair of twins were young boys.

"I thought it would be fun." Stan answered, avoiding his twin glance. "And yes, Dipper." He added, answering his great nephew question. "I took your shirt when Mabel and Ford went out and you were watching TV."

Dipper sighed. "Would you care to tell me how are we going to hide this now?" the boy asked. "You need to work on the mystery shack and Mabel will think it is weird for you to not see her in the morning."

Stan avoided his nephew glance. "Huh… I didn't think about that." He said, making Ford facepalm.

"Well, maybe we will have to tell Mabel everything now." Ford said, hoping this would make the situation easier.

"I don't know." Dipper began walking in circles. "We already lied too much, I don't think we can tell her the truth now."

"It wouldn't be better if we just tell her about all this instead of keep lying?" Ford asked, before Dipper could answer, they heard footsteps.

Dipper panicked, went out of the room and closed the door, locking the pair of twins in Ford's room.

"Hi Dipper." Mabel was wearing her pajama. "I heard you talking to someone." She said to him, a little confused.

"Oh, I wasn't talking with anybody." Dipper said, "I…. was talking to myself about the new mystery book I was reading." He added, laughing nervously.

"Okay…" from Mabel's look, Dipper knew she didn't believe him.

" _Maybe it's time to tell her everything."_ He thought, but before saying anything else, Mabel began talking again, her voice full of happiness.

"Anyway, I will hang out with Johnny again in two days!" she said dreamily. "Isn't that great? I think he likes me, Dipper!" before Dipper could say something to that, Mabel keep talking. "He said he liked my sweater! And he said a lot of nice things about me being a nice girl! He is great!" after saying all this, the girl look at her brother expectantly. "What do you think?"

"Well…" Dipper faked a smile while feeling guilty for having to lie to his sister again. "That's great! But… doesn't he remind you of someone?" he asked, hoping her crush would disappear a little with that question.

"Huh? Not really." Mabel answered, thoughtfully. "I haven't really talked like that with someone before, why do you ask?"

Dipper, then, remembered that she and Ford hadn't really bonded since they knew each other. " _Man, this complicates everything_." He thought.

"Oh, I had the feeling Johnny was like someone we know, but maybe that's just me." Dipper lied.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to the attic. See you in a bit." Mabel said this and went upstairs. When Dipper made sure she was out of sight, he opened the door, making the twins to fall, apparently, they were listening to everything while leaning on the door.

"Did you really have to be so nice with her?" Stan asked, still on the floor, trying to process what he just heard.

"I didn't know this would happen!" Ford answered, still a little shocked thanks to his niece words. That just make them got rid of the idea of telling her the truth. "Besides, I was hoping she would stop think about, well, "Johnny", like that after Dipper made her that question."

"I was hoping that too." Said Dipper with a sigh. "But you two don't really talk much, she doesn't know your personality that well."

"Huh." Ford blinked, thinking about what his nephew just said to him. "I guess you are right."

"Well, telling her the truth is now out of question." Stan said. "She would be very confused and hurt after listening to us."

"I think I have a plan." Dipper was now seated on the floor and watching to the ceiling, concentrated in his own thoughts. "We can tell Soos that he will have to manage the Mystery Shack just with Wendy and Melody like he did after the last summer." Dipper explained. "I'll convince Mabel to be outside all day and we will be in the lab working on the machine."

"Well, that sounds good." Stan said. "But I won't be a kid just to work in that machine. I want to have a little fun."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Ford couldn't believe what he was saying. "What are you planning to do?" Ford asked while Dipper raised an eyebrow and watched Stan curiously.

"Well, I thought we could go fishing tomorrow." Stan said, happily. "Come on, Sixer. How many times will we be young again?"

"I hope just this one time…"

"We need to do something fun!" Stan exclaimed, interrupting his twin. "We can go fishing tomorrow, what do you say?"

"Well…" Stanford really didn't want to fight with his brother. He already had been angry with him for over 30 years until last year, so… "Okay, we can go fishing tomorrow."

Stan smiled brightly at his brother while Dipper sighed.

"Then I will be working in the machine tomorrow." The boy wearing a hat said. "Let's hope this works."

* * *

"So, Mr. Pines is out of town?" Soos asked the next day.

Dipper smiled nervously at the man "Yep. He had to check on a business he had or something like that, I hope that isn't a problem."

"Oh, don't worry dude." Soos said smiling. "I already worked like this last year. When your uncles returned, I had to give Mr. Pines the mystery shack back, he will always be Mr. Mystery to me, but it was nice to be Mr. Mystery for a while! That was my biggest dream."

Dipper just smiled at the man's words.

* * *

"Well, the Mystery Shack is working without problems and Mabel will walk Waddles in a while before heading to the mall with her friends." Dipper said, entering the lab and talking to his great uncles.

"Great. While she walks Waddles, we will get out of here." Stan said, a little excited, earning a confused look from his brother.

* * *

"I can't believe your leash is ruined, Waddles." Mabel said with a sigh, returning to the shack. Her walk with Waddles was a total failure thanks to the stupid leash. "Goodbye five bucks." Mabel looked at the shack in front of her and smiled. "Hi Johnny!"

The boy froze, with his brother at his side. " _She shouldn't be here!"_ they thought while watching her run to Ford. Thank God "Johnny" was using the pair of gloves Dipper gave to him.

"Hello." He said nervously to the girl.

"You have a brother?" she asked curiously. "Hi! I'm Mabel, are you also Dipper's friend?"

"Hi, Mabel." The boy without glasses said with a smile. "I'm St…uart. Yep, Stuart." The kid laughed awkwardly. "That's my name."

"Good name." the girl said while laughing. "I will go out with your cute brother tomorrow night."

"Really?" Stan acted like he didn't know about that, punching his brother "friendly" in the arm. "He didn't say that to me."

"Well, I was going to tell you." Ford rubbed his arm. That hurt!

"Anyway, we were just visiting Dipper before going fishing." Stan said with a smile. "So, this pair of cute boys will go now."

"I think I'm the only cute one." Ford said, trying to get revenge for that punch.

"We look the same." Stan said with a frown.

"Yeah, but your brother is the cute one." Mabel said laughing with her cheeks slightly pink. "Well, see you later guys."

Mabel entered the shack, ignoring the shocked face of one of the boys.

* * *

"I can also be cute!"

"Just forget that, Stanley."

"I can't!" the boys arrived to the lake, ready to fish. "We look the same! How come you are cute and I'm not?"

Ford rubbed his eyes, a little annoyed. "Do I have to remind you that she has a crush on "Johnny"?" Stanford couldn't say "me" in that sentence. He shivered at the thought. "That's probably the reason of why she thinks I'm the cute one."

Stan looked ready to discuss that, but he let it slide, instead, he smiled. "Well, let's forget that and have some fun, shall we?"

Ford had to admit, after a while, that he was having fun.

He was just talking and making jokes with his brother like they used to do when they were children. Stan caught something and he had to help him with the fishing rod. They fell backwards while trying to do it and the big fish landed in Ford's head. That was a little gross, but they laughed out loud.

However, Ford couldn't help but feel that his brother had something else on his mind the whole time.

"Well, that was fun." Stan said, when they were leaving the lake. "Do you want to buy some ice cream?

Ford accepted. They went to a small park where a man was selling the ice cream. They sat on the swings, just like the old times.

"Today has been fun." Stan said. "It's almost time for the sunset."

"Yeah, we will have to go back soon." Ford said casually, smiling while watching the colorful sky. However, as soon as he said those words, he could notice how his brother tensed. He sighed. _"That's it_." The boy with glasses thought.

"Stanley." The tone of voice the boy used wasn't Stan's favorite. "Be honest with me, why did you use the machine?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello~ thanks for supporting the story! :)**

 **Spider-Pig 1986: Yep, he used it, and I think you will see in this chapter if you were right about your guess or not:) And yeah, I agree, being lied to isn't fun at all:( Mabel might not like being lied to:s Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the last capter n.n and these days I don't have too much to do, so, I'm updating daily and I'm happy to know that you like the story n.n Thanks for your support:)**

 **He Torres: I'm glad you like the story's concept:) and I'm trying to keep the character's original personality, although I am failing in some parts:'p I'm glad you are enjoying the story, and yes, there is going to be a little drama:P**

 **Well, let's begin~**

 **I do not own Gravity Falls or any of its characters.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Well, we need to talk.**

"Huh?" Stan stared at his brother, trying to look confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm asking you about the reason of you turning into a boy again." Stanford said, looking at his brother expectantly.

"I already told you." Stan seemed nervous, the ice cream in his hand was shaking a little. "I wanted to have fun."

"You know, you took my name for 30 years, I thought you could lie a little better than that."

Stan looked at his brother with wide eyes, a little shocked by his brother's words. Ford knew he may have been a little bit cruel by saying that, but he wanted an answer.

The boy with glasses could feel how his ice cream was melting, but he couldn't care less. "Well?"

Stan blinked a couple of times, before looking at the floor. He swinged slowly, trying to find his voice again. His brother didn't say a word, he just waited, patiently.

"I don't know." He answered, finally, earning a tired sigh.

"I think you can do better than that." Ford said, almost whispering. However, those words seemed to affect his twin.

"Dammit, Stanford!" the boy without glasses throw his ice cream away, his reaction being a surprise to his brother. Stan stood up, not meeting his brother's eyes. "Don't you really have any idea of why I did this?"

Ford left his seat and walked slowly to his brother, dropping the ice cream in the process. The boy gently put a hand on his brother's left arm. "I will if you explain it to me." He told him, looking at his twin with concern.

Stan, still refusing to meet his brother's gaze, walked to the swing and sat again, trying to put his thoughts into words. Ford took a sit beside him, waiting patiently.

The boy with glasses looked at the sunset. The sky was now a nice shade of orange and the clouds were a soft shade of pink. He could hear some parents yelling at their kids for them to go inside their house. They were probably about to have dinner. He smiled softly when he heard how a girl was pleading her mom to stay at the park a little more.

"I missed this." Ford looked at his brother when he heard those words.

"What, exactly?" the boy asked, a little confused.

"This!" Stan exclaimed, finally looking at his brother's eyes. He looked like he was fighting to hard not to cry. "I missed spending time together like we were kids. I know, we were in the sea together last year, but… being together, doing silly things like nothing else mattered, just you and me playing, being kids…" Stan looked at the floor again. "I've been missing that since I got kicked out of home when were young, you know?" the boy sighed. "I just wanted to live that again."

Ford just stared at his brother with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open and with a weird feeling in his chest that he couldn't describe.

The boy with six fingers stared at the sky, trying to find the right words to respond to that.

The last few days he had been worrying too much about the whole problem with Mabel and trying to avoid bad memories of his childhood, that he forgot about the good times he spent as a kid and how his new appearance would affect his brother.

" _I didn't think this would happened_." He thought, feeling guilty. " _He was feeling like this all this time_ …"

"I'm sorry." He finally said, earning a confused look from his sad brother.

"What?" he asked, his voice shaking a little.

"I'm sorry." Ford repeated. "All this time, I was just concentrating about turning back to normal and I didn't realize this would make you feel… like this. I also didn't notice your feelings." Ford sighed again. "I'm sorry, Stan."

"You don't have to apologize." Stan looked down again. "You didn't have a way to know this. I never told you."

"But I'm your brother." Ford replied, looking at his brother, again." I should have noticed."

Stan sighed. "I guess we're both idiots." He said, laughing a little.

Ford smiled. "Yeah, I guess we are."

The two boys laughed, Ford hugging his brother by the arms by doing so, making everything okay again.

"So, are we good?" Ford asked, smiling a little. Stan nodded in response.

"High-six?" the boy without glasses raised his hand. Ford smiled at this and took out one of his gloves, showing his six-fingered hand.

"High-six." He said, before making the high-six with his brother.

Stan wiped a lonely tear that had escaped from his eye. "Ugh, I think there's too much dirt in the air today." He said, making Ford to raise an eyebrow, but he said nothing. "So, about the cute boy thing…"

"Get over it, Stanley."

* * *

"Where have you been?" Dipper closed quickly he shack' door and followed the twins to Ford's room. "I thought you were going to show up earlier."

"Well, something came up." Ford said, rubbing his neck while smiling at his brother.

Dipper raised an eyebrow at this, but smiled anyway. Whatever had happened, it seemed like his uncles were happier than the day before.

"Well, I have good news." The boy with the hat said with a smile. "The machine is almost ready, so maybe tomorrow, late in the night, you can be back to normal."

"That's great!" Ford exclaimed, while Stan smiled.

"Yeah, however, this means that you will have to say goodbye to my sister, no exceptions." The boy said, firmly.

"I know." Ford said while sighing. "Don't worry, tomorrow this ends."

Suddenly, the heard footsteps.

"Not again." Stan whispered while they closed the door.

"Hey Mabel." Dipper said. "I was just heading to the attic." However, Mabel did not smile back to him. "Mabel? Is there something wrong?" he asked, worried.

Mabel's look made the boy feel bad. She looked so… hurt. "Dipper, are you hiding something from me?" she asked, tensing the boy in front of him and the ones who hide in Ford's room.

"Of course not, Mabel" Dipper lied. "What makes you think that?"

"Don't lie to me Dipper." The girl voice was shaking. "Grunkle Stan is nowhere to be seen, you have been acting weird and I haven't seen Grunkle Ford in days!" she exclaimed, some tears falling off her eyes. "Do… all of you hate me? Is that it?"

"That's nonsense Mabel." Dipper tried to calm his sister. "We don't hate you, we all love you."

"Yeah, right." Mabel looked at the ceiling, trying to put her thoughts in words. "Then why have you been lying to me? Now it's not only grunkle Ford, but grunkle Stan and you are avoiding me too?"

"What do you mean?" Dipper asked, confused. Ford and Stan looked at each other with the same confused look.

"I know Ford doesn't really likes me, Dipper." She began to say. "I mean, yeah, I've been drawing with him when we go to excursions, but I made him a sweater and he haven't use it, not to mention, he hasn't seen me in days! He doesn't even wants me to go down to the lab to give him a piece of cake." The girl started to cry. "Why does he hate me so much?" she whispered, between sobs.

Ford gasped, his eyes wide and feeling like if someone had punch him in the stomach. Did his niece really feel like that? It was true he didn't spend too much time with her, and he haven't use his new sweater yet, but, did he really make her feel like he hated her?

"Mabel, I can assure you that Grunkle Ford loves you." Dipper told her, trying to put a hand on her shoulder, but she backed away.

"Don't lie to me, and tell me why all of you are avoiding me." She demanded, however with Dipper's silence, she had enough. "Goodnight, brother." Looking at the floor, she began to walk towards the attic.

"I'll tell you!" Dipper exclaimed, gaining Mabel's attention. "I will tell you… after everything is back to normal." He said, earning a confused look from his sister.

"Back to normal? What's happening?" she asked, pain in her voice. "Why can't you tell me?"

Dipper sighed. "Sorry Mabel, you will have to wait."

The girl just closed her eyes with anger and leave the room, closing the attic door with all her strength.

Dipper let himself fall against the door frame, trying to contain the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. Knowing the one who caused her sister's pain was probably against the door, he opened it, watching the two boys fall.

Stan rubbed his head, while watching his brother worried. "Are you okay?"

Ford shook his head slowly. "I didn't know she felt like that." He whispered, shocked.

Dipper knew Ford didn't meant to make his sister feel bad, however, he couldn't help but feel anger towards him. "She thinks you don't like her because of how different she is from you." He explained, his voice tense. " _Calm down."_ He thought to himself.

"Are we really gonna tell her what happened after going back to normal?" Stan asked softly, to no one in particular.

Dipper sighed. "I don't want her to hate me because of me lying to her." That's all he could say at the moment.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi! Thanks for reading this fanfic:)**

 **PopcornWolf10: Please, don't hit your head! D: I'm glad you are enjoying the story and that you liked Stan and Ford bonding moment:) And well, let's hope Mabel isn't too mad at her brother after all this.**

 **Spider-Pig 1986: Sorry about what happened to your feels:'( and yeah, Ford and Mabel never really bonded and that just breaks my heart every single time I think about it, I really wanted them to interact with each other a little more in the show:(  
I'm glad you enjoyed the twins bonding moment:)**

 **Well, let's begin the chapter~  
Oh, I almost forgot, in this chapter there is a little reference to a small one shot I write about Dipper, who definitely didn't want a goodnight kiss in his head from his grunkles. ****(liar).** **You don't have to read the one shot to understand this chapter, I just mentioned it just in case someone is confused about the small reference.**

 **Well, now enjoy~**

 **I do not own Gravity Falls or any of its characters**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Well, I messed up**

Stan and Ford woke up early the next day, as ready as they could be for the day.

"Well, I guess I'll help Dipper with your machine while you are gone." Stan said in the lab, looking at the blueprints. If he was able to fix the portal, he could help with this.

"Sounds good." Ford said, organizing the lab. The last few days made the place look like a tornado took place in the room.

"Yeah, however, I need to talk to you about Mabel."

Ford looked at his brother after those words. Stan's face had a serious expression. "What's the matter?"

"After we turn back to normal, you are going to spend more time with her." He told his twin, forgetting about the blueprints he had in his hands. "You heard her yesterday. She thinks you hate her!"

"I know, I know." Ford tried to calm his brother down. "I heard her and, honestly, I didn't know she felt that way. I mean, I know we haven't spent too much time with each other, but I thought that she was happy with the drawings she made with me and with the affection I gave her."

"A goodnight kiss isn't enough." Stan said, rolling his eyes. "She probably thinks you only kiss her head because you feel like you have to."

"Grunkle Stan is right." Dipper entered the lab, holding some new clothes. "Some days ago, she told me she thought you hated her. I thought she got over that idea after spending some time with you." Dipper sighed before continuing. "But I guess, this last few days changed her perspective."

Ford sighed, sitting down in a chair close to him while rubbing his eyes in frustration. "I love my niece, I swear." He told the two boys. "I just… didn't know she wanted to know me more. I thought she was happy with the little interaction she had with me." Ford looked down to the floor. "I guess I was wrong."

Stan walked to his brother and put a hand on his twin's arm. "Hey, at least you know her feelings now. You can fix this." He told Ford, smiling a little.

"He is right." Dipper smiled at his great uncle. "You can start wearing that sweater she made for you, she would really felt happy if she sees you with it."

"You mean the one she gave Ford the day after she told us about you wanting a goodnight kiss?" Stan said, wanting to tease his nephew to cheer up his twin.

"You didn't have to mention that!" Dipper exclaimed, blushing a little, and making his great uncles laugh slightly. The boy with a hat cleared his throat before speaking again. "But yeah, that one."

"Well, it is a nice sweater." Ford stood up and walked to one of his drawers; he opened it and took out the red sweater with a gold six fingered hand in the middle. "I haven't use it because I don't really go out of the lab too much, so I thought it was pointless."

"Well, now you know it isn't" Dipper walked to where his uncle was and looked at the sweater. "Even if it's only for five minutes, she will feel better if someone uses one of the sweaters she makes."

* * *

"Well, good luck." Stan watched how his brother finished to pun on his pair of gloves. "Don't be mean to her."

"I know, Stanley."

"No dude, I'm serious. I promised to myself that I would beat up the guys who broke her heart." Stan explained, rubbing the side of his neck awkwardly. "I really don't want to punch you."

"And I don't want to punch myself either" Ford told him. "We are in the same situation."

Ford said goodbye to his brother and went out of the lab and the shack, ready to pick up Mabel.

" _Okay, here we go_." He thought. The boy knocked on the door and waited only a few seconds before the girl opened the door.

"Johnny!" the girl smiled brightly at the boy, not helping at Ford's guilty feeling at all. "Ready to go?"

"Sure I am." He told her, smiling nervously. "Do you want to take a walk in the park?" he asked the girl.

"Of course! That sounds nice." Mabel went besides "Johnny" and hold his hand.

" _Oh boy."_ Ford thought. " _This will be more difficult than I thought."_

* * *

"So my grunkle Stan punched the pterodactyl in the face and saved Waddles!" the girl was telling him one of the stories of what she lived last summer. Ford smiled brightly while hearing her. "It was great!"

"That's cool." The boy told her, making her smile before she continued talking.

"Yeah, my grunkle can be pretty cool." She said. "Though, he also makes mistakes. Once he lost a bet with me and he had to sing a song about that. I have it on tape."

" _Really?"_ Ford asked, an evil smile on his face. "That's sounds really funny!"

"It was." Mabel laughed. "Not a lot of people have watched it, I still haven't show the video to…" the girl fell silent all of a sudden. "Well, not a lot of people have watched it."

Ford raised an eyebrow and looked the girl with concern on his face. "You were going to say something else" he said to the girl, making her nervous. "Why?" he asked, but quickly added: "If you don't want to tell me, it's fine, I was just curious…"

"No, it's okay." Mabel smiled slightly at him "I was going to say that I haven't showed that video to my other grunkle." The girl sighed after saying this. "It's just that… I don't know, I don't think he likes me very much."

"Why?" the boy asked, preparing himself to make mental notes of the girl's answer.

"Well, he is super smart and he is always making experiments or researching things in his lab." The girl began to explain. "Lately I began helping him with some drawings, but he doesn't do anything else with me after that. My brother tells me that's not true, but…" the girl sighed. "He's been lying to me lately and I don't know what to think anymore."

Ford stayed silent, not really knowing what to say.

"I know he is going to tell me everything eventually, but it hurts." She told the boy, sounding like she was fighting her tears. "And about my grunkle Ford, I can't blame him if he hates me. He is super smart and I'm just a silly and useless girl…"

"That's not true!" the boy exclaimed with anger, surprising the girl. "You are not silly nor useless, never say that again!" he demanded. The girl only nodded.

Noticing the girl's fear, Ford calmed down a little. "I'm sorry." He said, sighing and looking to the floor. "I… don't want you to think about yourself in that way. Who cares if your uncle is always in his lab working? That's doesn't mean he is better at you. In fact, I think you are better than him." The girl just stayed silent, looking at the boy with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open. "You are really kind, I have never met a girl who can be friends with the person she wants. Sure, some people think you are weird, but they are just jerks for judging you before talking to you first! You are creative and gentle, so forget about those people, forget about the idea of your great uncle hating you and just be happy with who you are."

The boy catched his breath after saying this and looked at the girl, who watched him with eyes full of… " _Affection!? Great, I messed up again. Stupid emotions"_

The girl smiled at him. "Thanks for telling me all that" she told him, while hugging him, the boy returned the hug, giving her gently pats in her back.

The girl broke the hug and laugh a little. "Well, do you want to hang out again in a few days?" she asked.

" _Here it goes_." He thought before start speaking.

"Actually, I can't Mabel." The boy began to say. He could see how her smile was starting to disappear, so he continued before losing his courage. "My parents want to leave the town tomorrow." He said, lying. "I'm sorry."

"But… summer hasn't ended yet." The girl told him, tears threatening to fall down her eyes. "You were visiting a relative, why you are leaving so soon? Isn't New Jersey a little too far from here?"

"It's my parents decision, Mabel." He told her his voice trembling a little. "I'm sorry."

The girl looked down to the floor, a frown on her face. "Are you also lying to me?"

The boy froze in his place. "What? No, Mabel…"

"You are." The girl leave her seat. "The last few days I have been told a lot of lies, I know you are lying to me."

Ford sighed, trembling a little. " _That's it, I'm going to tell her the truth, this is too much for her…"_

"Don't try to explain yourself." The girl told him, when she saw how the boy would start speaking. "Stop pretending you like me!"

Then the girl ran off, making Ford scream at her.

"Mabel! Wait! I can explain, I swear!" The boy left his seat in an attempt to catch her but he fell to the floor the moment he tried to run so fast. _"Seriously?"_ he thought with frustration.

The boy was looking at the direction the girl ran off to, when he saw a small package in the bench he was sitting a few moments ago. It had a note, so Ford took it and read it.

"To: Johnny, From: Mabel." The boy opened the small package and he gasped.

Inside the little box was a small green sweater with gold letters that spelled: "Cool guy".

" _Oh man_ " the boy couldn't help but let some tears fell from his face. " _I'm useless as a grunkle and as a boy._ "


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello and welcome to this new chapter:)**

 **PopcornWolf10: I'm glad you loved the reference:D Yeah, Ford is just having some bad days:(, let's hope everything gets better for him:) Thanks for reading!**

 **Spider-Pig 1986: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter!:) Well, I'm updating a little later than usual, I actually thought about not updating today, but I wanted to continue the story, so, here is the new chapter:D Thanks for reading!**

 **PippyTheBest: Mabel it's not having a good time:( but don't worry, grunkle Ford will know how to fix this:) Thanks for reading!**

 **Amethyst21516: It makes me happy that my updates makes you happy:) Also, I'm glad you are enjoying the story :3 Thanks for reading!**

 **Well, let's begin~**

 **I do not own Gravity Falls or any of its characters.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Well, let's tell her.**

"Mabel, come on, open the door." Dipper pleaded. "What's wrong?"

"Just go away." Even when she wasn't by his side, Dipper could hear his sister's sobs.

"Please, Mabel, just tell me what happened." Dipper pleaded again, with his heart broken.

"Mabel it's not here, she is in sweater town."

Dipper sighed, now it was going to be almost impossible for him to talk to her.

"Dipper." Stan walked to his grandnephew, he whispered so Mabel couldn't hear him. "Ford is downstairs, he just arrived."

With a frown on his face, Dipper went downstairs to meet his great uncle, who was walking in circles, a concerned look on his face.

"Dipper, how's Mabel?" he asked, clearly worried about his niece.

"You tell me." If he wasn't his grunkle, Dipper would have already punched the boy in front of him. "What did you say to her? She arrived to the shack and immediately locked herself in the attic, she won't speak to me."

"I told her I had to go back to New Jersey." Stanford answered with a sigh, looking at the new sweater he had in his hands. "She knew I was lying to her."

Dipper sighed while looking at the sweater Ford was holding. "Well, there's not much we can do about that now. I think the machine is ready, so let's use it now."

* * *

"I hate this." Stan was now wearing the clothes he usually wore while working in the mystery shack, although they were really big for him now. "Let's just use that machine so I can fit in this again."

"I agree." Ford was having the same problem with his own clothes.

"Well, stand in front of the machine." Dipper said. "I'm going to activate it."

The two brothers did what they were told.

"Three, two, one…" Dipper closed his eyes due the bright laser that shot the two boys. A few seconds later Dipper opened his eyes and look at the two people in front of them.

"Did it work?" Dipper could hear his grunkle Stan's old voice, making him smile. "Ha! It worked…! Ouch!" Stan complained when he felt his nephew hug, but smiled at him anyway, ruffling his hair. "Geez kid, be more careful next time, now I have my back problems again."

Dipper laughed and turned to see his grunkle Ford adjusting his glasses, who looked at him and opened his arms at him, offering a hug. Dipper returned the smile and hugged his grunkle.

"It's good to have you back." Dipper said happily, breaking the hug. "Well, you guys never left, but… you know what I mean"

Ford laughed at his nephew, but his happiness didn't last long. He turned to see the exit of the lab, knowing what was coming next.

* * *

"Are you ready?" Dipper asked to the two men.

"No."

"Not at all."

Dipper sighed. "Me neither, but we need to do this." He said, before knocking on the attic door.

"I told you to leave me alone, Dipper."

"Well, it's not only Dipper now." Grunkle Stan began talking. "We came here to talk to you, pumpkin."

When he received no response, Ford started to speak, his hands in his back the whole time.

"We owe you an explanation Mabel, and… an apology." He said, his voice full of concern for the girl. "Please, open the door."

After a brief moment of silence, the three of them heard footsteps before Mabel finally opened the door. She had her arms crossed and her eyes were red. She obviously had been crying.

"So, what do you have to say?" she asked with a frown on her face. "Why did all of you avoid me the last few days?"

"It's… kind of a weird story, Mabel." Dipper said as an answer, making Mabel snort.

"Just tell me what happened." Mabel ordered, her voice tense. "And don't tell me more lies, I had enough of them today with Johnny." She looked down to the floor. "I thought he, at least, wanted to be my friend."

Ford tensed when he saw Dipper and Stan back away slightly. Knowing it was his turn to speak, he took a step forward.

"Mabel, I can assure you that Johnny would have liked to see you again." He said, rubbing the side of his neck nervously.

"How can you possibly know that?" the girl asked, raising an eyebrow "I haven't seen you for a while, you don't even know who Johnny is."

"I do know who Johnny is." He said, his voice shaking a little, when the girl snorted in response, he continue talking, showing the small sweater he was holding. "Johnny was me, Mabel."

The girl looked at the sweater, her eyes full of confusion and surprise. "What?"

"Johnny was me." Ford repeated, knowing this was the weirdest thing Mabel had heard in her short life, "I built a machine that can reduce or increase the biological age of living beings, I accidentally use it on myself and I became a 13 year old boy."

Mabel blinked a couple of times before looking to her brother, who was outside the attic door with Stan. "Is this true?" she asked, earning a nod from her brother.

The two men and the boy went to the lab with the girl to show her the machine. While doing this, they explained to her that Stan had also became a young boy.

"Grunkle Stan was a teen too?" she asked, in shock. They went to the living room, where Mabel sat in the small sofa, not knowing what else to do.

"Yep, I was that Stuart boy you met." After Stan said this, Mabel screamed, startling the men and the boy, who instantly looked at her in concern.

"Are you alright?"

"Mabel, what's wrong?"

"What's the matter, pumpkin?"

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, her head between her hands, trying to avoid Ford's look after realization hit her. "I dated my great uncle!" she said, her cheeks slightly pink and hiding her head in her knees.

At hearing this, Dipper and Stan cringed while Ford only cleared his throat in embarrassment while trying to think of something to say.

"Well, yeah, kind of." Apparently, his mind couldn't think of anything useless at the moment.

"That's why you were wearing gloves." Mabel said in realization, still hiding her face "Oh my God, I even thought about kissing…"

"Mabel, can you not say your thoughts out loud for a moment?" Stan asked, interrupting his niece before she could finish that sentence. The two men and the boy shivered at what Mabel was going to say, while the girl just groaned in frustration.

"Ugh! I can't believe I didn't realize it was you!" she said, finally showing her face, but still avoiding Ford's glance.

It all made sense to her in that moment. The person she met wasn't just a shy boy. The boy she met a few days ago was her great uncle, who probably felt incredibly akward everytime she speaked to him for the last few days.

"You couldn't have known." Dipper said, putting a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort his sister.

Mabel sighed, before speaking again. "Why didn't you tell me all of this since the beginning?" she asked to her family.

"We tried to." Stan began saying. "But you were so excited about dating "Johnny" that we couldn't tell you the truth."

"And after that, we were trapped in a spiral full of lies." Ford said, heading closer to Mabel and kneeling down so he could met her gaze, although she still avoided his glance in embarrassment. "We are very sorry, sweetheart."

Mabel just sighed. She just couldn't ignore the fact that she thought he was a cute boy. She thought her _grunkle_ was a _cute boy._ But he had been a cute boy...

 _"Stop it, Mabel!_ " she thought, blushing a little and trying to not make eye contact with her great uncle in that moment _"Ugh, this is too weird, even for me... Oh no!"_ the girl tensed. " _I told him things I didn't want him to know!"_

"Are you okay? _"_ Ford asked when he felt his niece tension.

"I just..." the girl, avoiding her uncle's glance, left her seat, moving away from Ford,"I… need to be alone for a little while." she told her familly, "This is just too much." after saying that, the girl went to the attic and closed the door.

"Well, at least she doesn't hate us." Stan said while Ford stood up, a guilty look on his face.

"We can't blame her for wanting to be alone in this moment." Dipper said, sadness in his voice, "We gave her a crazy explanation of what happened the last few days."

"We should have told her everything since the beginning." Stan commented with regret. "But we thought it would be better to hide all this from her. We were wrong."

Ford looked at his brother after those last three words. "What did you just say?"

"We were wrong?" Stan raised an eyebrow to his brother, was he beginning to have hearing problems?

But Ford only smiled at his brother before talking to Dipper.

"Dipper, do you know where the video of Stan singing is?" he asked to his nephew, earning a laugh from the boy and a fearful look from his brother. "I think it might be useful."


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello! Well, this is the final chapter of the story:( I hope you al enjoyed it till the end :) I will be writing some one-shots after this story once in a while, so, we will read us again :D**

 **Spider-Pig 1986: Yep, Mabel knows. Haha, I'm glad those chapters are your favorites, I enjoyed writing them specially chapter 3:p Yes, this is the last chapter of the story, but I will be writing more one shots of Gravity Falls, they will include Ford because I love him... I mean, because he is a great character:D so, I hope you enjoy them in the future:) Thanks for reading!~**

 **PopcornWolf10: I have watched Peppa Pig with my little brother so, I know the feeling:( Yep, puberty gave Mabel a bad time with young Ford, but let's hope everything gets better:) I'm glad you enjoyed the story! Thanks for reading!~**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Well, everything is okay.**

Mabel had been staring at the ceiling for a while. Waddles was by her side, cuddling with her, like if he knew she needed a hug in that moment.

She wasn't hurt… okay, that was totally a lie. Of course she was hurt! Her family lied to her because they thought she couldn't handle the truth, although she really couldn't be mad at them, they were just trying to protect her.

However, she was totally ashamed of what she told to her uncle Ford. The girl groaned, blushing a little thanks to her own embarrassment.

She told him about how people in California thought she was weird and how that affected her, she also told him how she thought he hated her! She basically had been an open book that her grunkle Ford read easily. She only told all those things to Dipper, but she had trust Johnny enough to tell him all of her feelings.

But of course, Johnny wasn't really Johnny.

" _I shouldn't have told him all of that_ " Mabel thought with frustration. _"But then again, he told me nice things after that… "_ Mabel sighed, not sure what to think. _"He lied to me about being Johnny, did he lie to me when he said all those nice things to me?"_

A knock on the door took her out of her thoughts.

"Dipper, I don't want to see anyone right now." She said with a sigh.

"Please Mabel, we have something important to show you."

Mabel groaned _"What now?"_

The girl went to the door and unlocked it, not bothering to open it. She went back to her bed, not noticing how her two grunkles and her brother carried a small stereo.

The girl looked at them, and something called her attention.

" _Grunkle Ford is wearing the sweater I made him."_ she thought, feeling a warm feeling in her chest when she saw the red sweater.

"Ready guys?" asked Dipper to the two men. Ford only nodded in response while Stan only groaned in annoyance. "Three, two, one…"

Dipper turned the stereo on, and a melody that Mabel knew too well began to play.

She gasped, where they gonna…?

Her unasked question was quickly answered when her family began singing.

" _We're the Pines, and were wrong,  
We're singing the Pines wrong song,  
We shouldn't have taken that chance,  
Now here's our remorseful dance."_

When they began to do the kicks of the song, Mabel couldn't resist anymore. She laughed like if someone had just told her the best joke in the world. She couldn't breath and she knew she had to calm down, so smiling and still shaking of laughter, she ran to where the three members of her family where and hugged Dipper with all her force, Stan and Ford joined the hug immediately.

"So, I guess we are forgiven." Dipper said with difficulty, his family was crushing him, but he didn't care in that moment.

"I forgive you, guys." Mabel said, breaking the hug with a smile on her face. "I couldn't be mad at you after your singing."

"Well, don't get used to it." Stan said, rubbing the side of his neck. "I'm never making that dance again."

"That's not necessary, Stanley." Ford said, clearly enjoying his brother's embarrassment. "I believe the tape is downstairs, and we can watch it as many times we want."

Dipper and Mabel laughed at this.

"I'll make the popcorns." Dipper exclaimed, running out of the room and being followed by an angry uncle. "You are not gonna watch it again, kid!"

Mabel kept laughing till she realized she was alone with her grunkle Ford, who watched her, smiling gently at her, like if she had something to tell her.

"You are wearing the sweater I made for you." She commented, looking shyly at the floor.

"It's a nice and a comfortable sweater." He told her. "It's like I'm always receiving a hug."

The girl blushed a little, remembering how she told Johnny something similar.

"Mabel," her great uncle Ford began talking to her while kneeling at the floor, her cheeks slightly pink and visibly nervous. "I owe you another apology." The girl looked at him, her confusion winning against her embarrassment.

"What are you talking about, grunkle Ford?" the girl asked. "You apologized with grunkle Stan and Dipper."

"Yes, but when we hang out today…" Mabel looked away at that sentence.

"That sounds so weird now." She whispered making Ford laugh softly at his niece.

"You are right about that, however, that's not important now." He said. "Mabel, today you told me that you think I hated you." He said, making the girl look shyly at him. "Not only that, but you also mentioned that to your brother. Yes, Stanley and I heard that."

Mabel sighed, hiding her face in her hands. "I'm sorry."

Ford took her hands and made her look at him. His eyes were full of both confusion and concern. "Why are you apologizing for?"

"I… I don't know." She answered, looking at the floor again, "I guess I'm sorry you heard that."

Ford sighed. "I'm the one who owes you an apology. I didn't realize that I need to spend more time with you." When Mabel was going to interrupt him, he continued talking. "Let me finish. I didn't realize you felt like I don't like you just because I'm in my lab all the time. Sweetheart, listen to me with all your attention." Mabel had no choice but look at his grunkle in the eyes, his look serious. "Mabel, I love you. I love you as much as I love your brother. You are my family after all." Ford smiled at the girl and wiped a lonely tear that escaped from his niece eyes. "And, I do not think you are stupid or useless. Quite the opposite, my dear. I believe you are the smartest, kindest, funniest and the most beautiful girl I have met." Mabel blushed slightly after hearing those words. "So, if you want to spend time with me, just let me know, I will be honored to have your company."

" _He was being honest with me…"_

After he finished his little speech, Mabel instantly launched herself at the man, almost making him lose the equilibrium, however, he also hugged her tightly while stroking her hair.

"I love you too, grunkle Ford." The girl whispered with happiness, earning a small kiss in her head from her grunkle. "So…" it seemed like the girl was wondering if she should ask something or just let it slide. "Was I a good date?"

Ford laughed at the girl's innocent question. "You were a wonderful date, sweetheart." He answered, stroking her hair a little more. "You were actually the best date I had while being a boy." He added, "You have the power to make any person feel good about themselves."

The girl blushed a little at this, ugh, she had to say it.

"Well, it may be weird…" the girl broke the hug, looking down at the floor again. "But I don't think my little crush with "Johnny" will go away just like that." She told her uncle, shyness in her voice. "I think I will have a little crush on him for a little while."

Her uncle laughed and looked at her with tenderness. "Well, these past few days had been anything but normal, my dear. I think that was to be expected."

The girl smiled at him and hugged him again, her grunkle stroking her hair with affection.

They stayed like that for a few more seconds before a pair of voices gained their attention.

"Grunkle Stan, are you crying?" they heard Dipper's confused voice.

"Stop talking nonsense kid! I caught something in my eye." However, Stan's response was followed by a small sob, making Ford and Mabel laugh.

* * *

"Come on, you have watched that ten times already!"

"Eleven," Ford corrected his brother, making his great niece and nephew smile. "And we are going to watch it one more time.

The four Pines were sitting in the small sofa of the living room, watching Stan singing "The Stan Wrong Song" in the small TV.

Dipper, who was sitting between his two great uncles, took the remote and played the video again.

" _I'm Stan and I was wrong,  
I'm singing the Stan wrong song,  
I shouldn't have taken that chance,  
Now here's my remorseful dance."_

"This is my favorite part!" Mabel exclaimed. She was besides her grunkle Ford and she was hugging Waddles, who seemed happy to be with the whole family.

" _Do the kicks!"_ The girl in the video ordered, " _Jazzier!"_ she demanded when Stan began to do the dance.

"That dance needed more energy." Ford said, his voice serious, even though he was just saying this to make his great niece and nephew laugh. And it worked.

"I told you to be jazzier, grunkle Stan." Mabel said, a smile on her face.

"Instead of criticizing my dancing, you and your brother can go to bed now." Stan said, standing up and turning the TV off.

"Come on!" Mabel saw her grunkle with accusing eyes. "You just want us to go to bed so we don't watch this video again!"

"I'm not even gonna deny that."

"Coward." Dipper said, while standing up. After this, he gave a small yawn. "Although, It is pretty late."

"You are right about that." Mabel said, rubbing her eyes. It had been a really long day.

"Yes, it is late." Ford agreed. "But first, we are going to talk."

Dipper and Stan saw Ford with confusion while Mabel just sighed.

"What now? Is Soos a newborn baby now? I'm mentally prepared for everything now." She said, crossing her arms and smiling with confidence.

"I want to talk about you two, being bullied in California."

Mabel smile disappeared while her brother gasped in surprise.

"Huh. I wasn't prepared for that."

"Wait, bullying?" Stan was confused. "What are you talking about, Sixer?"

"When I was a teenage boy, Mabel told me they were not treated well in California."

"It's not that serious." She said, trying to ignore the serious look she was receiving from both of her grunkles now. "People just kind of… ignore us."

"Yeah, it's basically that." Dipper explained. "Our classmates think we are weird. They don't talk with me because they think I'm awkward, and if they try to talk with Mabel, they quickly stop talking to her because of her personality."

"People laugh at me when I do something silly, though." She explained, trying to not feel uncomfortable under her uncles' now concerned gaze. "I laugh too, so it's not that bad."

"I didn't know you were so lonely in your home." Stan said, no knowing what to think.

"California may be the place we live." Dipper said." But… it's not really our home."

"Our home is here." Mabel explained. "Gravity Falls is the place we love. Of course we love being with mom and dad, but here we found people that love us and accept us for being who we are, so, we don't really think California is our home, our home is with you two."

Stan and Ford just stared at the kids, not believing what they just heard. Did they really love them that much?

Stan was the first to react.

"Oh, come here you two!"

Dipper and Mabel laughed when their grunkle hugged them. Mabel looked at Ford and tried reach out for him. Ford smiled at her and quickly joined the family hug.

"We love you, kids." Ford told them, ruffling the teens hair with affection.

"We love you too." Dipper said, a small smile on his face.

* * *

"Grunkle Stan, would you give Waddles a goodnight kiss too?"

"I'll never kiss that jerk."

"But you just kissed Dipper!"

"Mabel! Shut up!" Dipper blushed at this sentence and looked at the wall, avoiding his family's glance, making his sister and his grunkles laugh.

"Come on, Dipper" Mabel was hugging her pig while watching Dipper from her bed. "Goodnight kisses are cute!"

"Especially when you just received one from "Johnny", right?"

"Hey!" the girl blushed at this, Stan and Ford watching the twins' argument with amusement. "That was uncalled for!"

"Goodnight kids." After saying this, Ford closed the attic door and went downstairs with his twin, both of them still hearing how the two teens were arguing.

"Everything is back to normal now, huh?" Stan commented, watching to the direction of the attic, a smile on his face.

Ford smiled too. "Yes, everything is back to normal again."

Or at least, as normal as a life in Gravity Falls can be.

 **The End**

 **Thank you so much for reading guys:) See you soon~**


	9. Bonus

**Hello~ I decided to write a small extra chapter for this story n.n**

 **Enjoy~**

 **"Well, this is just… ugh"**

Mabel woke up that morning with a small smile on her face.

Her family finally explained to her what had happened for the last few days and even when the whole situation had been too weird, she felt better when she finally had answers.

The girl jumped off her bed and proceed to wake up her brother.

"Good morning, Dipping Sauce!"

The girl's loud voice made Dipper's eyes open. The boy groaned, still too tired to get out of bed.

"Mabel it's..." the boy look at the clock in their night stand. "Seven in the morning, why are you up so early after yesterday?"

The girl began to jump in her brother's bed. "I'm in a good mood today, bro-bro. Come on, let's have some breakfast."

The boy sighed before sting in his bed, yawning loudly. "Okay, just… give me a minute." The boy rubbed his eyes, annoying his sister.

"Dipper, quick!"

"I'm coming" Despite his tiredness, the boy couldn't help but smile at his sister's behavior. She was finally happy again.

The two of them went to the kitchen, where they found one of their grunkles.

"Hi, Grunkle Ford!"

The man stopped reading the book he had with him and smiled at the two siblings. "Good morning, kids." His smile was replaced by a confused look on his face "Aren't you up a little too early?"

"Told you." Dipper looked a little angry at his sister, who just ignored him.

"I woke up in a good mood." The girl answered, sitting on the table. "So, I decided to woke Dipper early and have breakfast together!"

The man laugh softly at the girl's attitude. "That sounds like a good plan, sweetheart." The man leave his seat and opened the fridge. He didn't notice Mabel's small blush.

But Dipper did.

"Well, let me cook some breakfast for you two" Ford wasn't a cooking master, but he had managed to cook breakfast before. "Are eggs and bacon okay?"

"Sure." Dipper was the one who answered this time, raising an eyebrow to his sister, who was oblivious to her brother's attitude.

Dipper looked at her sister's face, and his chest hurt for a moment. The girl had slept just fine, however, her crying from last night made her eyes look swollen.

The boy didn't want to see her eyes like that ever again.

The boy returned to the real world when Ford put a plate in front of him "Thanks." He said, before start eating.

"What are you going to do today, grunkle Ford?" the girl asked, curious.

"Well, the last machine I made created a lot of problems." The man frowned at the memories of the last few days. "So, before researching something else, I think I'll take a little break."

Dipper could swear he saw his sister's eyes shine.

"Let's draw together!" the girl said, a little too loudly. I want to improve my drawing skills, and you could help me a lot, please."

Ford chuckled at his niece enthusiasm. "Alright, I'll spend time with you today sweetheart."

The girl smiled brightly at him, ignoring Dipper's little frown.

* * *

"Mabel, I don't really think the sweater you use today is important." The boy commented, seeing how his sister looked with a little frown at the sweaters she had. "I mean, you will spend your day with grunkle Ford in the forest."

"Nonsense. " Mabel reached for a red sweater. "A girl always need to look good."

After spending their day drawing, Ford had promised Mabel to go with her in the search of fairies a couple of days after. And now, Mabel was choosing what clothes she could wear for the day.

Dipper frowned at her comment. "Erm… Mabel, it only has been a little while but… you are over what happened with… "Johnny", right?"

Mabel tensing shoulders was enough answer for Dipper.

"Mabel, you know exactly who that boy was." The boy bit his lip, a little nervous about how to approach the subject.

The girl sighed, closing her eyes. Dipper reached for her and hugged her by the shoulders.

"Don't get me wrong, Dipper" the girl finally looked at her brother. "It's just that… It's like…" the girl couldn't put her emotions in words. "I know he isn't really Johnny, I know it was grunkle Ford all that time, but… " the girl looked at the floor again. "He was the sweetest boy I met and knowing who he was made have a … "the girl hugged herself "I don't know what to call it."

"Crush?" The word made Mabel sigh.

"It's not a normal crush." She said. Dipper gave her a "no kidding" look and Mabel rolled her eyes at him "What I mean is that my crush is like one a girl gets with a… super cute teacher or someone they see on TV, you get what I'm saying?"

Dipper nodded and smiled gently at her "I think I do."

Mabel sighed and let her brother comfort her for a little while.

* * *

"They are so beautiful!"

Ford laughed at Mabel's excitement.

The two of them were in the forest, surrounded by dairies of all colors. As long as they didn't bother them, they were hurtless.

"I wish I could take them with me." Mabel said dreamily. "They look like they could be really fun."

"Yes, but they live here." Ford took a notebook and gave it to Mabel. "They won't leave their home. Now, why don't you try to draw some?"

The girl smiled brightly at her grunkle before taking the notebook.

Soon, the girl had drawn two beautiful fairies that accepted to model for her. The little creatures were spinning in the air, having fun with the girl.

"This is so much fun!" the girl giggled, making Ford smile. "Thank you so much, Joh..."

The girl closed her mouth before she could finish her words, but she knew I was too late.

" _Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, please don't notice, please, please, please…"_

"Mabel… what were you going to call me?"

The girl froze in her place, not knowing exactly what to do.

Maybe it was time to face what have been haunting her for the last few days. It couldn't be that difficult, her grunkle already know that she would have a little crush on the boy she met the past days, so it shouldn't be a problem to explain.

With this thought, the girl stood up confidently, look at Ford in the eyes and…

Ran

" _Coward."_ The girl let a few silent tears roll down her cheeks while ignoring her grunkle's voice. _"Idiot."_

* * *

Dipper enjoyed his time alone. The boy was currently reading a mystery novel with a smile on his face, writing in his small notebook the theories he had for the story.

However, the sound of his sister violently entering the room caught his attention.

"Mabel?" Dipper quickly went besides her. The girl was crying and hidding her face in her knees. She couldn't stop shivering.

"I'm an idiot!" the girl exclaimed. Dipper only hugged her, not knowing what else to do.

"What happened?" he asked, his face full of concern for his sister.

"I almost called him Johnny." The girl sobbed. "I was having a normal day with him and I ruined it completely by almost saying Johnny."

Dipper now understood.

"Hey, it's not that bad." The boy tried to comfort her. "I mean, I'm sure that if you explain to him…"

"No." the girl didn't meet her brother's eyes. "He already knows I somewhat have a small crush, but… no." Mabel rested her head on Dipper's shoulder. "I just want everything to go back to normal. I thought we finally were okay but…." The girl's lip trembled "I know the moment I talk to him about this he is going to understand me but at the same time he will be super reasonable and tell me that with time I'll get over it and… ugh." Mabel hide her face in her brother's shoulders "I hate this."

Dipper stroked his sister's hair gently, trying to make her feel better.

"It's silly." Mabel began to talk again. "But sometimes I just wish that I could have a last small date with him as a boy, you know?" the girl sighed. "In that way, the ending could be better."

The young twin stayed like that for a little while, not knowing that two men were listening through the door.

Stan and Ford went downstairs, Ford was looking at the floor all the time while Stan was seriously considering punching his brother.

"What are you going to do?" Stan raised an eyebrow at his brother while asking this. "We can't just ignore this."

"I know that, Stanley." Ford sighed, before an idea came to his mind.

Maybe he could use his machine for the last time.

* * *

Mabel was annoyed by the fact that no one would answer the door when she was busy washing her face. Dipper was called by Stan and now both of them were God-knows-where.

"Coming." The girl rubbed her eyes a little before answering the door.

"What can I do for…" the girl suddenly became quiet when she saw a small boy with big glasses and curly brown hair in her door wearing a sweater that said "Cool guy."

"Hi, Mabel." The boy waved a hand at her as a greeting.

A six fingered hand.

Mabel closed the door in the boy's face.

" _What- the- heck?"_

The girl hesitantly opened the door one more time, seeing how the boy rubbed his hurt nose.

"I guess I deserved that." The boy mumbled, before looking at the girl in front of him "Hey… I know you are a little confused now…" the girl nodded at the boy's words. "But I want to talk to you, why don't we go to the park?"

The girl closed the door behind her, not saying anything and went to the boy's side.

"Grunkle Stan, is this a good idea?" Dipper asked to his grunkle while he hid behind a tree.

"I don't know." The man sighed. "But let's hope this turns out well."

* * *

The two kids arrived to the small park. Mabel took a sit in a bench while her "date" went for ice cream.

"Here you go." The girl took the chocolate ice cream the boy was offering her, but ahe didn't return the smile "Johnny" was giving her.

The boy sighed before taking a sit next to her and noticed how the girl tensed.

" _Was this really a good idea?"_

"Hey, Mabel." The boy's voice made the girl look at the boy. "I owe you an apology." The girl look at him, a little confused.

"You already apologized to me."

The boy smiled at Mabel. "Really? Maybe you are confusing me with other Jonny." Mabel raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. Ford sighed before beginning to talk. "I'm sorry about lying to you when we spent time together, I never wanted to hurt you."

Mabel smiled at the boy, understanding what he was trying to do. "Don't worry, I understand why you did it."

"Really? I don't remember talking you about my situation." Johnny rubbed his head nervously.

"Oh, right." Mabel laugh a little at her grunkle's act. "So, _Johnny_ , why did you lie to me?"

"Well, let's just say that I'm not really a boy." The girl gasped, faking surprise. The boy smiled a little. "I'm a man whose machine make him to be a 13 year old boy."

"Oh my God!" the girl put her hands on her face, trying to suppress her laugh. "I can't believe it!"

"Well, now you understand why I lied to you."

The girl chuckled. "Thanks for being honest with me."

Mabel looked at her feet, talking with this boy was comforting and easy to her.

 _Too easy._

"It's a shame though." The girl's lip trembled a little, making the boy at her side frown. "I really like you."

She knew she had a silly teenage crush, she knew that in a few weeks she would like another weird boy, she knew that.

But still…

" _It hurts so much…"_

Mabel suddenly felt the boy's arm around her, surprising her.

"You know, you are the only girl who had said that to me." The boy smiled gently at her. "I'm sorry."

The girl returned the hug.

"It's okay. I always have weird crushes and get over them after a while." The girl smiled at him, trying to hold her tears. "I once dated a merman and then he had to get married with the Queen of the Manatees."

"Johnny" blinked a couple of times at this. "That sounds… interesting."

Mabel laughed. "I'll tell you about it other time." The girl gave him a meaningful look. He could drop the act know.

"I didn't know if this was a good thing to do." Ford admitted. "I'm sorry about all this, Mabel."

The girl looked at the floor. "It's okay, still… I want to talk to you once you get back to normal again." The girl couldn't help but blush a little. "I need to tell you a few thinks, and even if it's easier to talk to you a "Johnny", I need to talk to you as the person you are."

Ford nodded at this, and returned to the shack with her.

* * *

"How did it go?"

Ford was adjusting his coat when he saw his brother, a curious expression on his face.

"Everything is okay" Ford smiled at the man. "Where is Dipper?"

"Mabel made him follow her to the attic. She said something about needing to practice."

Ford rubbed the side of his neck awkwardly. "Huh, I see. I better go talk to her now."

* * *

"Mabel, don't make a big deal about this."

"But it is!" Mabel was pacing in front of her brother, she was eating her hair, a sign she was in deep thought. "I'm just about to say something super weird and I don't know how to act!"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Mabel gasped, but quickly calmed down and acted like any normal person would.

She hid under the bed.

"Seriously!?" Mabel practically could hear the roll of eyes of her brother. "I can't believe you."

Mabel could hear how Dipper left the room and someone else entered.

"Sweetheart? Where are you?"

Mabel wished with all her force that her grunkle just got out of the room.

But of course, Ford had to look for her.

"There you are." The man smiled gently at the hidden girl. "I may not have been in this dimension for a long time, but I can recall that people aren't under their bed when they talk to someone."

Mabel sighed and slowly got out of her hidding spot while looking at the floor the whole time.

The girl just stood in front of her grunkle, not knowing what to do.

"So, you wanted to talk with me."

The girl noticed how her grunkle kneeled down in front of her and she began playing with her hands, trying to avoid the eye contact he obviously was looking for.

"It's not a big deal." She mumbled. "It's just, well…" the girl hide her face in her hands. "Ugh."

Ford raised an eyebrow at his niece. "Ugh?"

"Yes, ugh." Mabel could feel a knot in her throat.

 _"Oh no, not now."_

"Mabel, are you okay?"

Ford took the girl's hands and he could see how tears began to form in her eyes.

"Mabel…"

The girl couldn't hold her tears any longer, so she threw herself in her grunkle's arms and started to cry. Ford caught her and hugged her tightly while he stroke her hair.

"Shh, it's okay my dear, it's okay to cry" the man words comforted her a little. "I'm here, sweetheart, I'm here."

After a few minutes, the girl was able to talk.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "It's just that… ugh."

Ford couldn't help but laugh softly at the girl's use of words.

"Ugh?" he asked again, making the girl smile a little.

Mabel broke the hug, and wiped her tears with her sweater sleeve. She then looked at the floor again.

"Remember when… I told you about me having a crush on Johnny for a little while?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. However, Ford could hear her.

"Yes, I remember."

Mabel looked nervously at her side. "Well… my little crush on Johnny is basically a small… wellmaybenotsosmall… crush… on you…" the girl groaned as soon as those words left her mouth, surprising Ford a little. "And it's super weird! I mean… it's like the crush I had with my English teacher last year, but you are not my teacher and I get too dumb and weird when we spend time together and it's just _… ugh_."

Mabel hid her blushing face in her hands again, refusing to meet her uncle's look. She definitely wasn't going to look at him in the eyes.

"Mabel..."

But of course, the man just had to make her look at him.

Ford was smiling at her with tenderness, making the girl look at the floor again. "Stop looking at the floor." He told her, making the girl sigh before looking at him. "Sweetheart, I know it's weird." The man laugh softly at the girl's blushing face. "But I'm not disgusted by what you are telling me. Sweetheart, you're just being adorable"

Mabel couldn't help hiding her face in her hands, making Ford laugh.

"Ugh."

Ford gently reached for her and pulled her into a hug, one she shyly returned.

"You will get over this." He told her.

"I know." The girl sighed. "It's just an innocent crush, but…" the girl bit her lip, thinking of what to say. "In the meantime, can I spend a little too much time with you?"

Ford laughed at the girl's shyness.

"I don't see why not." he answered before kissing the girl's head, making her blush a little.

"Thanks, grunkle Ford." The girl broke the hug and smiled brightly at him. "Let's go downstairs and bake a cake!"

Ford smiled at her and accompanied her to the kitchen, where Stan and Dipper were "casually" just there.

"Hey, what's up?" Dipper asked, not meeting his sister's glance while "reading" a book.

"Dipper… the next time you try to act like you were reading a book…" the girl pointed at the book's cover, "you could make sure the book isn't backwards."

Dipper blushed in embarrassment while Stan only face palmed.

"Kid, you need some more lying lessons."

"Stan, stop bad influencing the kids."

The four family members spent their night baking a cake after that, one of them having little butterflies in her stomach while doing so.

Well, it was just a little innocent crush, it would pass.


End file.
